Chamber's Farm Wood.

Orange Ladybirds

Female Meadow Grasshopper

Tissue

Male Orange Moth

A visit today to the annual open day at Chambers run by our local Butterfly conservation group,was a great success with the first walk in the morning proving  very fruitfull with great views of both White-letter and Purple Hairstreaks along with Essex Skipper,Marbled White and White Admiral enjoyed by the group of 40 butterfly enthusiasts!.Other interesting sightings on the walks included Common Buzzard,male and juvenile Siskin at the centre bird feeders,a single Muntjac and at least 30 Migrant Hawker,my first of the year.Other dragonflies observed today included Ruddy and Common Darter and Southern and Brown Hawker's and interesting insects included both Roesel's and Dark-bush Cricket,Median Wasp and several Hornets.We were also treated to some excellent moth species which had been trapped the previous evening and this included 5 new species for myself,male Orange Moth,The Suspected,Barred Rivulet,Beautiful Carpet and the star of the show for me a cracking specimen of the Tissue.The latter species being the first recorded at Chambers since 1935!.Other nice species also seen included Black Arches,Oak Hooktip,Beautiful Hooktip,Pine Hawkmoth,Scallop Shell and a super Hummingbird Hawkmoth which i managed to catch and show the public in the butterfly garden.

MSQ Again.....

A visit again to this cracking reserve today,saw several good insects being found and also some waders being seen at last!.On the bird front,the best highlights were the afore-mentioned waders,with 3 Common Sandpipers,and singles of Green Sandpiper and Greenshank,the water level is the lowest i have ever seen it and looks perfect for a White-tailed Lapwing,i wish!.Other waders present included 4 Curlew and the Avocet family.Other birds seen included Green and Great-spotted Woodpeckers,3 Willow Tit,10 Common Tern(Which included 4 juv's),male and juv. Marsh Harrier and at least 2 Kingfisher,so plenty to keep us occupied.Insects put on a great showing,with the best find being a single Physocephala rufipes,this is a species i have only ever seen once before at Crowle and is by no means common,it belongs to the conopid fly family which are all parasitic species,this one being a parasite of Bees and Wasps which it captures in flight and lays an egg on its host,the larvae then hatches out and devours its host while it is alive!.Interestingly 2 other species from this family where also seen today,Conops quadrifasciata and Myopa buccata.At least 8 species of Syrphidae were seen today,with the best being the very impressive Scaeva pyrastri,a migrant species and several Volucella pelluscens.Butterflies were well represented with a good total of 16 species and dragonflies with 10 species.I also managed to find another new micro moth for myself today,Anacampsis blattariella,another species which rely's on Silver Birch as it's larval food plant and also a stunning,fresh Agapeta zoegana.Another great visit and only 15 mins from home!.

MSQ......

A trip to Messingham again today in the not too brilliant conditions got some great sightings over the 6 hours i was on site.Several interesting sightings were seen of various species.On the bird front the best sighting was 2 Crossbill 'Chipping' there way over the pine plantation,the first i have seen for several months and the fourth year i have seen them here in mid-summer.Other bird sightings of note,were 2 juvenile Avocet feeding with their parents around the bottom islands on the main lake,also here were a couple of fledged juv. Common Tern and a female Tufted Duck with a huge brood of ten ducklings,i also managed to see a couple of Kingfisher as well.It wasn't the best day today for large flying insects and most of the butterflies and dragons where seen only in the brief spells of sunshine or when i flushed them,but i stll managed a cracking close encounter with a female Southern Hawker,see my Dragonfly blog.Other interesting insects included a lovely Grey Dagger larvae,6 Oxycera rara in several locations around the reserve today,Rhagium mordax,Brown-china Mark Moth and the strange looking conopid fly,Myopa buccata.The Dune Helleborine's are in full flower now also and the reserve is looking really good with it's show of wildflowers.A great morning out and it just goes to show you don't always need perfect weather to enjoy the hobby!.

North Linc's....

A visit to a few sites today in the North of the county began at the local patch,with the best highlights being 2 fledged juv. Marsh Harrier,always nice to see and especially when they are ten minutes from home!.There seemed to be young birds about everywhere today,with excellent views of Tree Sparrows,Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler,amazing to think that the latter two species will be making their long migrational journeys to Africa soon.Other notable sightings included my first Common Darter of the year and a single teneral male Southern Hawker.
 The next place we visited was Conesby Quarry at Scunthorpe,a disused iron stone mine,which we visited as part of a Butterfly conservation field meeting to look for Grayling.I managed to see at least 37 individual insects and managed some decent shots of this lovely butterfly.Other highlights here included 2 singing male Grasshopper Warbler and several Mottled Grasshopper in various colour combinations,a nice little species!.

 The final place we visited was the superb Messingham Sand Quarries,were the best sighting for me of the day was a cracking,pristine,July Highflyer which Adi found,a beauty!.Other sightings of note comprised of 2 special plants,Dune and Marsh Helleborine,the former a very rare flower nationally and just coming into flower now.I also managed to see my first Emperor dragonfly of the year here also,with 2 males being recorded.So all in all a great day out with Adi and Dave in the baking sun,with some decent pic's hopefully!.

Crowle and Thorne Moors NNR.

An all day visit to this fantastic area today with Dave and Adi,to see what we could find,resulted in one of the best days out this year up to now.The best bird sighting had to be the amazing sight of 20 Hobby watched hawking dragonflies over Thorne Moors,not only a personal high count,but also an equal Yorkshire record to boot as well!.Several birds gave superb views as they caught and dispatched the dragonflies on which they were feeding,excellent!.The only other bird sightings of note where a couple of singing male Tree Pipit on Crowle Moor.Another reason we had made the effort today was to see what interesting insects we could find and today did not disappoint.Butterflies were well represented and good counts of Large Heath,with 53 and Large Skipper with a staggering 179 where the highlights.Moths were also seen in a good diversity,with the highlights being 3 new micro species for myself in the form of Argyresthia goedartella and the locally distributed Aethes rubigana and Metendothenia atropunctana and also a couple of the beautiful Large Emerald.Dragonflies were seen in the expected good numbers,with several first records of the year for myself which included Common and Brown Hawkers,Black and Ruddy Darter and Emerald Damselfly,in all recording 11 species.The best insect find of the day went to yours truly,with a superb species of beetle Sinodendron cylindricum,this species belongs to the Lucanidae family of beetles which includes the Stag Beetles,a cracker looking for all the world like a mini Rhinoceros!.What a day!!.

Barton Med's.

A visit to Barton today to try and see the 2 reported American gulls,resulted in an unfortunate blank,but on the plus side i managed to see an impressive 17 Med. Gull's which comprised of 5 gorgeous summer plumaged adults,8 1st summer and 4 second summer birds.At one point there was 9 birds on view at the same time which comprised of 8 1st summer birds and a single 2nd summer.This is the most i have seen at any one time in the county,pretty good stuff and some compensation for not seeing either the Bonaparte's or Ring-billed.The only other highlight was some local Avocet chicks and an impressive sunset.